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Disabled Lebanese Gain
Work Skills and Jobs
FrontLines - July 2010
By Elias Alhaddad
| In addition
to gaining work
skills, each
trainee helped
raise awareness of
the need to reduce
barriers for people
with disabilities
and expand
their access to
employment. |
Over 20 Lebanese with disabilities
completed a training
course and job placement event
May 26 aimed at including persons
with disabilities in Lebanon’s
social and economic
development.
“I will have a great future out
of this training I am receiving at
the American University of Beirut
Medical Center,” said Ziad
Al Awadi, who became a trainee
at the center in August 2009.
Al Awadi is one of more than
20 people with disabilities who
received training in English,
computer literacy, and communication
skills as a part of
USAID’s Towards Inclusive
Development in Lebanon
(TIDiL) project, which also provided
on-site, follow-on training
through 11 USAID partner
organizations.
In addition to gaining work
skills, each trainee helped raise
awareness of the need to reduce
barriers for people with disabilities
and expand their access to
employment.
|
Ziad Al Awadi, a physically challenged trainee, at his workstation
at the American University of Beirut Medical Center. Al Awadi
enters data on patients’ medical records using a coding system
for each type of disease.
|
Citizens with disabilities are
among the most vulnerable in
any society and endure exclusion
from socioeconomic opportunities.
According to a 2003 study
conducted by the Lebanese
Physically Handicapped Union,
over 50 percent of people with
disabilities in Lebanon were jobless.
USAID’s TIDiL program
helps NGOs assist people with
disabilities to find jobs.
Experience has shown that
while persons with disabilities
face challenges breaking into a
workforce, organizations benefit
when they open their doors.
“Joumana is a person [who
is] pleasant to work with,” said
Sonia Sisilian, supervisor of Joumana
Hammoush, a person with
disabilities working at Haigazian
University’s Barsumian Library.
“She is very refined. I am satisfied
with her job.”
“I have improved a lot since I
first began,” said Fatmeh Massalkhi,
a trainee at the Center for
Civic Engagement. Massalkhi,
who has a visual impairment,
was provided a specialized
screen reader which enabled her
to fully perform her assigned
duties.
Mohannad Barakat, another
visually impaired person, said:
“Any person has difficulty
adapting to a new environment.
It is the same for someone with
a disability. But I have adapted
very quickly in my work.”
The TIDiL program provides
a model that may be replicated
in other public and private organizations
to serve more Lebanese
citizens with disabilities.
★
FrontLines is published
by the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs
U.S. Agency for International Development
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Material should be submitted
by mail to Editor, FrontLines, USAID,
RRB, Suite 6.10, Washington, DC 20523-6100;
by FAX to 202-216-3035; or by e-mail to frontlines@usaid.gov
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